The mate of his nanny

Chapter 182: Mood Swings

Edrick

When Moana told me that she was going out to have coffee with a friend, I was happy for her. In fact, so long as she stayed safe, I encouraged it. I knew how much stress she had been under over the past few months, so it would have been good for her to see a friend for a couple of hours.
However, when my driver called me and asked what was taking Moana so long to come down, I started to feel confused.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "She left half an hour ago."

"I haven't seen her," the driver replied. "I've been sitting right out front the whole time."

I furrowed my brow and stood. Before I jumped to any conclusions, I decided to check both bedrooms to see if she wasn't feeling well and decided not to leave, and maybe I just didn't notice her coming back in. However, she wasn't there.

By then, I was pretty certain that I knew what she had done. She had gone without the driver.
Cursing under my breath, I grabbed my keys and ran downstairs. Since the driver hadn't seen her at all due to her hiding herself for some reason, I had no way of knowing which direction she even went in. But if she had left on foot, then I was certain that she couldn't have gone too far. So, climbing into my car, I sped off to check all of the nearby coffee shops for her.

I searched for her for about an hour, running into all of the local coffee shops to see if she was there; unfortunately, she wasn't in any of them. By now, I was starting to feel panicked. This was too soon after what Kelly had done to her by having her get kidnapped by Rogues, and I became worried that something else had happened to her. As I drove, I eventually pulled out my phone and debated calling the police to look for her. But thankfully, I spotted a head of red hair walking down the street before I made the phone call.

I came to a screeching halt and told her to get in the car. Moana seemed to be in a bit of a mood, and almost immediately snapped at me when I told her that she had done something very dangerous by going out by herself with no protection, especially on foot. Why couldn't she understand that it wasn't safe for her to be walking around by herself when she had only just gotten over the incident with Kelly, and the paparazzi were still on the lookout for her?

Part of me almost wanted to tell her that she was the Golden Wolf, and that she needed to be kept safe or else there was a chance that she could be kidnapped or hunted. But I couldn't bring myself to do it; if she knew too soon, then it could speed up her progress with her wolf emerging, and I needed her to wait to shift until the baby was born for a multitude of reasons. Although, I couldn't help but wonder how much longer I could let this go on without telling her. Especially when she climbed out of the car and slammed the door behind her, I thought to myself that she would grow more and more impatient with me over time.

With a sigh, I watched Moana disappear into the building before I parked the car and headed inside. She didn't wait for me, not that I expected her to, and by the time I made my way back up to the penthouse she was nowhere to be seen.

"Did Moana come through here?" I asked Selina, who was baking a pie while the two maids were deep cleaning the kitchen.

"She ran past just a minute ago," Amy blurted out as she scrubbed the inside of a cupboard. "She seemed mad."

"Yeah," Lily chimed in before I could respond. "She slammed her bedroom door. Did you two have a fight?"

"Lily!" Selina hissed. "It's none of your business."
I sighed and shook my head, then walked over to one of the stools at the counter island and sat down.

"It's alright," I said, passing my hand over my face. "I think she's just dealing with some hormones."

The maids fell silent. I realized then that I had revealed more than I really meant to; lately, I had been becoming noticeably more open with the servants. I had always been a bit closer with Selina since I had known her for a long time, but I rarely chatted with Amy and Lily. However, ever since Moana moved in, I had found myself talking with them more often. It was a stark enough difference that even I noticed, and sometimes surprised myself with my candidness. Even just thinking about it made me smirk; Moana had had such a positive impact on me that I was even beginning to change my opinions on how servants should be treated.

I just wished that she could see that, instead of always getting so aggravated with me. Although, after the way that I snapped at her the other night, I supposed that I deserved it.
Selina pushed a fresh, steaming cup of tea across the counter toward me and gave me a knowing look. I could tell that she didn't believe that it was hormones one bit, and she was right.

"I'll talk to her later," she said, returning to decorating the top of the pie. "Just give her some space today. Not just today, but every day. She is an adult, and she's capable of taking care of herself."

I felt myself tense up a bit at Selina's words. Of course she was right, but at the same time, I just felt too protective over Moana. Maybe that protectiveness would only push her away, though.

I did wind up leaving Moana alone for the rest of the day. She didn't come out of her room very much except to check on Ella, and didn't even look at me when I passed by. Even though I wanted to ask her what her problem was, and part of me even wanted to grill her on who she had coffee with as though something about whoever she saw would explain her secretiveness and poor attitude, I decided to take Selina's advice and just gave Moana her space.

However, Moana didn't wind up coming to my room that night. I waited for a few hours, but she never came. Finally, unable to sleep without her, I decided to go over to her room and see if she was still awake; but when I went to open the door to climb into bed with her, the door was firmly locked and she didn't answer my knocks. With a sigh, I resigned myself to staying up all night in my study. I wouldn't be able to sleep without my pills, and I had already made a personal decision to not fall back into the pit of drinking copious amounts of alcohol to make myself sleep.

After all, sleep wouldn't come for me without Moana by my side.